Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making headlines and is already here.

AI is everywhere in our daily lives. Such as the voice assistants on our phones or personalised content feeds on social media. It helps unlock our phones with face recognition, keeps our bank accounts safe from fraud, and can even detect wildfires in minutes. As in other sectors, AI is continuing to develop within the veterinary industry. Let's explore the opportunities and risks of using AI, including how it is changing pet care, information access, and affordability for pet owners everywhere.

Understanding AI in Veterinary Medicine

AI is not just the sci-fi-imagined robots from the movies. Within healthcare, AI is the quiet background technology that assists decision-makers. This is achieved by organising updated information or flagging details that could otherwise go unnoticed. Other sectors have this already in place, e.g. banks detecting unusual payments or when GPS maps reroute around real-time traffic. Like other medical advances, AI is being developed using evidence-based research to improve pet healthcare.

AI is the development of computer systems so it's capable of performing tasks that usually need human intelligence. Including understanding language, image and pattern recognition, analysing information, and learning from experience.

Why AI Is Growing in UK Veterinary Practice

There is an increase in pet ownership as well as a shortage of vets within the UK. Any help or tools to reduce the pressure on the industry to assist in early treatment are useful. Recent British Veterinary Association (BVA) data shows that 21% of vets in clinical practice are already using AI. It’s used most often in radiography and lab diagnostics, and also in client communication and administrative tasks.

How AI Improves Veterinary Care

Diagnostics

AI has the potential to improve consistency and the speed of interpreting diagnostic imaging results. For example, a manuscript by Burti et al. (2024) highlights how AI can detect subtle anomalies that may be otherwise missed. Tools like the Vet-AI’s gait analysis model show future possibilities for diagnostics that owners can use at home to assist and flag issues that need veterinary attention.

Saving Time

If AI can handle the routine admin tasks like drafting notes, organising information, and sorting basic triage, then this frees vets and vet nurses to focus on what matters most: patient care and complex or emotional cases that need human insight and compassion.

Telemedicine & Accessibility

Accessibility is key in pet care. AI triage and telemedicine use technology to make care more accessible for everyone, especially when in-person visits are hard to get or attend. 

AI can assess pet symptoms and quickly guide owners to the appropriate level of care. This leads to swifter outcomes and reduces unnecessary vet visits. This also helps overstretched practices facing appointment shortages due to high patient demand. It eases pressure on staff and reduces the risk of burnout.

Prevention and Early Detection

Prevention is better than treatment. Apps and smart devices with real-time health monitoring make this easier than ever. This is already in use in livestock herd health and shows how this technology has already started to benefit animal welfare. The technology is expanding into companion animal wearables, opening up a world of prospective advantages.

Risks and Limitations of AI in Veterinary Practice

At the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) AI Roundtable in May 2024, experts discussed their key concerns and potential regulatory approaches for using AI in veterinary care. Concerns raised at the event focused on accuracy, loss of the human touch element in client interactions, legal issues, data privacy, and the risk of biased programming. Confronting these issues continuously will help ensure AI supports vets, protects animal welfare, and meets responsibilities to clients.

Accuracy

AI models can only learn as well as the data they’re trained on. If the data isn’t complete, accurate, or diverse, their performance will be limited. Developers need to work closely with clinicians to ensure that the data is clinically accurate. Every step should be overseen and validated as the AI learns and improves.

Data Privacy

Data privacy is an important consideration in AI use in veterinary care. Although the data relates to animals, it often includes owners’ personal details, so GDPR fully applies. Responsible providers use secure storage, anonymised datasets, strict access controls, and are transparent about how data is used.

AI Supplementing, Not Replacing Vets

AI will never replace vets.

Even as AI gets better at analysing images and sorting information, it will still have clear limits. These limits emphasise why clinical oversight is now, and always will be, essential. 

AI cannot perform physical exams, interpret behaviour, or guide owners through complex decisions with compassion and context. The RCVS stresses that human judgment must remain central to all clinical decisions, and AI should always operate under strong veterinary oversight and clear accountability. AI is becoming a helpful tool for vets to use in the background, supporting their work rather than replacing it. 

Used responsibly, AI acts as another tool in the veterinary toolbox, improving efficiency and consistency while leaving the real clinical decisions to experienced veterinary professionals.

The Future of AI in Veterinary Practice

Artificial intelligence is already part of everyday life. Its growing role in veterinary medicine mirrors the momentum seen in human healthcare and technology. AI has the potential to improve diagnostic consistency, support overstretched veterinary teams, and widen access to care for owners who might otherwise miss timely help. 

From triaging symptoms to streamlining workflows, AI is already assisting parts of veterinary care. With responsible development, the future possibilities to enhance animal welfare are exciting and boundless.